Disruptive digital technologies are, true to their name, massive drivers of change in business, but many organizations are not set up for digital success.
Vladimir Lukic
Despite ambitious digitization efforts, many leaders are disappointed to find that their IT function isn’t prepared to leverage the emerging technologies that drive digital disruption and economic change. As a result, their companies are struggling to reinvent products and services, meet changing customer demands, and keep pace with digital competitors.
IT functions must be transformed into world-class technology functions. To do this, digital must go beyond IT. Companies need to build up digital capabilities and increase efficiency and simplification, across the board. By embarking on this journey, leaders don’t just envision the company of the future—they create it. Crucially, the technology function is treated as a strategic partner and a digital business enabler, not a service provider.
To establish a world-class tech function, business and technology must work together to define a joint vision of the six drivers of tech function excellence:
Working with BCG’s tech function consulting team, clients have achieved a rise in customer satisfaction and return on digital investment, delivery times (including faster time to market and shorter cycle time) that are two to four times faster than was previously possibly, a 15% to 25% reduction in software development costs, and a 15% to 20% shift from indirect technology activities (such as overhead) to direct technology activities that add immediate value.
Generali Italia, a leading insurance company, launched a digital transformation that lowered response time by 50%, reduced down time by 80%, and slashed its defect rate by a factor of ten.
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Organization-wide platforms for product and service delivery enable agile ways of working and rapid recovery from crisis.
The tech team can emerge from the shadows and become an engine of value creation rather than a cost center.
Bold transformation is only possible if technology and business create a joint vision for a technology transformation—and then collaborate to make sure all efforts are completely aligned.
The COVID-19 crisis impacted women in tech differently. Midlevel women saw some benefits—but women of color, in particular, faced new challenges.
To swiftly achieve the goals of a transformation, the business and IT sides must jointly match the business strategy to the company’s data assets and architecture.
